Changing The Tides
by Kiwi Lee Scipio
Summary: Xana won. He managed to destroy Kadic, prevent Aelita from getting to the tower, and all hope is lost. Or is it? It wouldn't be much of a story if there wasn't a twist somewhere!
1. Chapter 0 Exterminated

Chapter 0

Exterminated

A raging fire could be seen as four large busses joined the slow moving traffic. Odd closed his eyes and looked away from the fire he could see from his seat, remembering his dog he was forced to leave in the, now destroyed, Kadic Academy.

Jeremie put his arms around Aelita, the girl crying and waiting for when the computer would see the end. Ulrich looked out the window and flinched as he saw another explosion. In the back of his mind he knew what it was. Xana had blown up yet another transformer, causing more destruction.

Yumi looked over at Ulrich in the seat next to her.

"I can't believe he won," Ulrich said, still watching the fire.

"He hasn't won yet," Jeremie said, looking at Ulrich and Yumi over Aelita's head.

"Odd, I'm… I'm so sorry about Kiwi," Sissi said as she sat down next to the purple and pink clad boy.

Odd wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked at her. "Thanks Sissi."

"Hey Sissi, do you know where we're going?" Yumi asked as she turned around to face the principal's daughter.

"Germany, just past the mountains," Sissi said.

"Why are we heading so far?" Yumi asked.

"Daddy wants to get as far away as possible. They think the fire's going to destroy most of France. No one seems to be able to stop it," Sissi said.

"If only I had gotten to the tower in time," Aelita said.

"It wasn't your fault Aelita," Jeremie said, gently brushing her matted hair out with his hand. "The Scyphozoa came out of nowhere."

"What is he talking about?" Sissi asked Yumi.

"Nothing important," Yumi said as she turned back around to face the front of the bus. "Not anymore."

Ulrich jumped as a bright light came from the Sevres River, the one the factory was on. He looked over at Aelita and Jeremie and saw that her eyes were closed, her head leaning on Jeremie's shoulder. Jeremie was still brushing out her hair, even though Ulrich's thoughts were on the worst.

AN: Fun little tidbit, this story is eight years old. And it failed the first time through. I started this story back in June of 2010. My style was crap but the idea was there. Eight years later and I read it one night, listening to my music and just going through all my old stories when I realize there is so much potential with this story. So for my birthday I sat and re-worked this story. Fixing spelling, fixing grammar, at least to the best of my ability with how bad I am at that, and rounding out the parts that need it. Here is Changing The Tides, a story born of an attack Xana did back in season one that failed, but he would learn from his mistakes, wouldn't he? He's a learning AI and I think he would've figured out a way to destroy all he could of his enemies.

Now a note about when it takes place in the timeline, I have it taking place sometime in early Season Three (I like writing in that season since it was so short).


	2. Chapter 1 One Day Earlier

Chapter 1

One Day Earlier

"Please tell me you are kidding!" Odd asked.

"Sorry Odd," Ulrich said, crossing his arms. "It's for your own good."

"But…But…"Odd started in protest.

Yumi held up Odd's blue game boy and said, "You've only had this game for, what, a day now? And you've beaten it twice."

"So," Odd said.

"Galactic Invaders has seen its end of you for at least a week," Jeremie said.

"There's not a place on this earth you can put that game that I will not get it," Odd said, pointing to Yumi.

"Oh really?" Yumi asked. She pulled back the collar of her black turtle neck and put the game boy in her bra. She pulled out an empty hand and patted the spot that held the game boy. She looked at Odd's disbelieving face and smiled as she said, "I'm sure you can't get it there."

Aelita and Ulrich started to laugh as they saw Odd's face show nothing but disbelief.

"How…" Odd tried to ask.

"Like Ulrich said," Aelita said, still laughing, "it's for your own good."

Odd crossed his arms as the bell for dinner rang.

"Well, I've got to get going home," Yumi said as she realized what time it was.

"See you Yumi," Ulrich said.

"What about my game boy?" Odd asked as she opened the door.

Yumi turned around and shook her head. "Sorry Odd, but no game boy for a week, give it a break." Yumi waved before walking out of the room.

"Bye Yumi," Aelita said.

Ulrich put his hand on Odd's shoulder and said, "Come on. Some food will do you good."

AN: Most of this chapter didn't get changed from its original form, which is why it's so short. Mind you, I wrote this back in 2010. I know I took what Odd said, "There's not a place on this earth you can put that game that I will not get it," from something but I no longer remember what. If anyone recognizes what that's from, please let me know.


	3. Chapter 2 If Could Fly Away

Chapter 2

If Could Fly Away

"What are you doing Odd?" Ulrich asked as he walked back into his room from practicing Pencate Slilat.

Odd looked up, his headphones in his nose and said, "Hey, the music comes out of my mouth!"

"What?" Ulrich asked as he walked over to his bed.

"I'm serious, listen," Odd looked back at his MP3 and turned it on. He opened his mouth and Ulrich could hear the Subdigitals' song, "S'envoler", coming out of his mouth.

The door to their room opened and Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita walked in. "What are you doing, Odd?" Aelita asked as Jeremie sat down on Ulrich's bed and opened his laptop.

"He's figured out a way to show how empty his head is," Ulrich said, pointing to his own head.

"Hey! This is what happens when you take away my game boy," Odd said as he changed the music to another song.

"Boredom is the weapon of choice," Yumi said, shaking her head. "Just remind me never to use his headphones again."

BOOM!

"What was that?" Jeremie asked, looking up from his computer.

Odd ripped out his headphones from his nose and got up as the group ran to the window, seeing what had caused the explosion. A transformer had overloaded that was just outside the fence. Fire rained down from the telephone pole, landing on the ground around it.

Jeremie went back to his computer and started to find a program.

"You think it could've been Xana?" Aelita asked, all jokes forgotten for a moment.

"But he tried that before," Ulrich pointed out, remembering the event from a year ago.

"But we stopped him," Yumi pointed out.

"We knew about it before he could do it. This time we didn't know about it and I can't seem to find the tower localizer program," Jeremie said.

"Do you think Xana got rid of it?" Yumi asked, looking over to the screen.

"He couldn't have," Jeremie said, shaking his head. "Not unless…" He started to type, leaving his friends with confused faces.

"Unless what Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.

"Oh no. He was able to destroy all of the fire walls I had put up to protect all of my information," Jeremie said. He slapped the laptop just below his keyboard in aggravation. "Ugh, he must have been working on this for a month at least!"

"We'll just have to go around Lyoko and try to find the pulsations for the towers, Jeremie," Aelita said.

Jeremie looked up and said, "It won't be that easy. He got rid of everything. I can't even find your vehicles right now. Going to Lyoko right now is out of the question, it's too dangerous."

BOOM!

"Sorry Jeremie, but we've got to deactivate the tower. We have to take the risk. We can't wait." Yumi said from where she stood, still looking out the window. Outside she could see Jim working with a hand held fire extinguisher to prevent the flames from growing beyond the entry way. The transformer just down the way from him had been the second explosion, raining down more sparks and fire. "Besides, if a fire gets started by Xana, there's no way of stopping it and if anyone gets hurt, than it's good bye for good, even with the return to the past."

Jeremie looked down at his computer and thought for a moment before looking up and saying, "You're right. Let's go."

AN: Blame my childhood church friend for finding out that if you use those old, plastic ear buds (you know, the type that aren't comfortable in the ears) and stick them in your nose just right, the vibrations will use the skull and tissue in the head to carry the sound. Opening your mouth just right will create a sort of speaker for the music. At least, that's how I remember it. I no longer have any of those types of headphones so I can't test it out now.


	4. Chapter 3 Fight or Flight

Chapter 3

Fight or Flight

"Transfer Aelita. Transfer Yumi. Scanner Aelita, Scanner Yumi. Virtualization!" Jeremie said as Yumi and Aelita were being sent to Lyoko.

The girls landed on the forest ground, next to Odd and Ulrich, as Jeremie said, "I have a little present for you. And I've also been able to find and fix the scanning program. The activated tower is 45 degrease south by southeast."

"Thanks Einstein," Odd said as he jumped onto his newly virtualized overboard and sped off in the direction with Ulrich on his overbike and Yumi and Aelita on the overwing right behind.

Jeremie surveyed the screens in front of him, trying to keep an eye out when he noticed five red triangles heading for his friends. "Look out guys," Jeremie said as he looked up at the screen above his head to pull up the cards belonging to the enemies. "Five Blocks are coming your way."

"Got it, Jeremie," Ulrich said. He looked over to his right to see farther down the path they were on and the five Blocks heading for them.

Ulrich sped up to Odd and said, "Odd, you're with me." He glanced behind him and saw Yumi and Aelita and added, "Yumi, protect Aelita while we make a path for you."

Yumi nodded her head as she slowed down her overwing to put distance between Aelita and the monsters.

"Let's get rid of these pain in the blocks," Odd said as he shot forward on his overboard.

"You need new jokes," Ulrich said as he followed close behind.

Odd shrugged as he lifted his paw up and aimed at one of them as he was rounding the bend. "LASER ARROW!" Odd cried as he shot one in the eye of Xana.

Jeremie looked at his screens and said, "Yumi, three Krabes are coming from behind you."

Aelita and Yumi turned around and saw them walking to them. "I see them Jeremie," Yumi said. She turned to Aelita and said, "Fly to somewhere so the monster can't get to you."

Yumi jumped off of the overwing and saw Aelita fly away before turning around and pulling out her two tessen fans. She jumped out of the way as a Krabe shot at her feet.

The three Krabes started to fire at her all at once, causing her to have to use both of her fans as shields.

"It's not a fair fight if I can't fire back!" Yumi called to the Krabes as she had to start backing up.

"YUMI!" Odd's voice was heard as Yumi realized she had backed up too far, the heel of her foot no longer feeling solid ground below it.

Yumi looked down, only to get shot in the thigh and loose her balance. She dropped her fans and started to fall backwards, towards the digital void below. She felt someone grab her waist and saw that she was getting lifted upward and over the Krabes that were shooting at her and her rescuer. She found the overboard below her feet and prayed Odd wouldn't let go of her.

"LASER ARROW!" Odd's voice called from behind Yumi as arrows shot at the Krabes, hitting them both on his mark and killing them.

"Thanks Odd," Yumi said.

"What can I say, you'd be lost without me," Odd said, smiling as he went down to the ground to drop her off.

"Guys!" Jeremie's voice called, sounding panicky. "The Scyphozoa's going after Aelita!"

Yumi looked around, but saw only Ulrich killing two Blocks at a time with Triplication.

"Where is she?" Yumi asked.

"Over there!" Odd said, pointing over the digital void to where Aelita and the Scyphozoa were, with Yumi's overwing. Odd turned his overboard around and headed over to the two, shooting at the Scyphozoa trying to get it to drop Aelita.

Odd hit the Scyphozoa in the tentacles and it dropped Aelita, her body missing the overwing as she fell to the digital void.

"AELITA!" Jeremie cried as he watched, helplessly as she fell to her destruction. His thoughts ran quick as ideas flashed through his mind. He started to type and ordered, "Odd! Shoot her!"

"What!?" Odd asked, still flying downward, trying to catch up with her to catch her.

"Just do it!" Jeremie said as he went to hit the enter button.

"I hope you know what you're doing Einstein," Odd said as he stopped flying downward. Taking careful aim, he shot his remaining three arrows at the girl's falling body. In the back of his mind he knew Aelita would have to go to a tower to return to earth. The arrows made their mark, bringing Aelita to her wireframe state as he took away her life points. Odd watched as she disappeared, her last pixel only centimeters away from the digital sea.

Jeremie pulled off his mike, letting it drop to the end of its cord as he jumped from the chair and ran to the elevator. He pushed the button and went down only to find the scanner room empty.

Jeremie stood in the middle of the room, next to the hatch, stunned. To his left, air was released as the scanner's door opened. Jeremie ran over to it and caught Aelita as she fell out of it. Her eyes closed as Jeremie lowered her to the ground, worry written on his face.

AN: As far as I can remember, they don't really explain what happened to prove Aelita could be devirtualized like anyone else. So my thought behind why they were worried this in this chapter was them just learning. That would put this story closer to the beginning of season 3, right after everyone came back to school from break.


	5. Chapter 4 Is This The End?

Chapter 4

Is This The End

Aelita opened her eyes and saw five faces over her. Four was her friends and the fifth was Yolanda. They seemed to be talking to each other but she couldn't catch what they were saying.

"Aelita!" Odd exclaimed, the first to notice her eyes open.

"How do you feel?" Yolanda asked.

Aelita sat up and said, "I feel fine. Could I have something to drink though?"

Yolanda gave her a small nod, a smile on her face. She turned around and went to the cabinet to pull out a small Dixie cup before filling it up with tap water.

Aelita took the moment she could and whispered, "What happened? Xana's not…"

Ulrich shook his head as Jeremie whispered, "We couldn't deactivate the tower."

"Here you go," Yolanda said, taking the few steps to walk back over to Aelita's bed. She handed the girl the cup of water and asked, "How much water have you been drinking lately?"

"I guess not enough," Aelita said, hoping Yolanda just thought it was dehydration that knocked her out.

"I know you're smart. You know humans are mostly water, so don't forget to drink it," Yolanda ordered, her smile dropping for a moment.

"Yes ma'am," Aelita said before downing the last of the small cup.

"I'll release you on one condition. If you promise for the next couple of days you drink only water," Yolanda said. Aelita nodded her head, letting Yolanda continue, "I'll see if I can find a water bottle for you, and if I don't see you with it for the next couple of days then you're coming back here and it won't be pleasant."

Aelita smiled up at the nurse, "Yes ma'am."

"Good. I'll be right back," Yolanda gave the girl a smile before turning to leave the room.

Yumi walked over to the window, looking through the park to see that the fire department had been brought in to combat what had happened to the transformers. From what she could see, it looked like all the transformers along that side of the school had blown while they were in Lyoko. "What are we gonna do?"

"We have to wait for Aelita's life points to regenerate," Jeremie said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I'm not sure how long it would take but on average it seems to be about four hours for you three. And since Aelita wasn't exactly devirtualized in the best manner, if could take longer."

"How _did_ you devirtualize me?" Aelita asked, resting her empty cup on her thigh as she leaned against the pillows behind her.

"I ran the same program I do when you're leaving through a tower," Jeremie admitted. "I just had to tell the scanner you came from a tower."

"And that's why I feel exhausted," Aelita said, understanding.

"I don't understand," Yumi said, turning around to lean against the windowed wall.

"He lied to the supercomputer and I barely got away," Aelita admitted.

"Being either this or you falling into the digital void, I think this is better," Jeremie pointed out, looking over his shoulder to the wall behind Aelita to avoid looking at his friends. Not for the first time, fear welled up inside him. Having the control over if his friends lived or died was not something he wished he had. And not always was it his control.

"Thank you, Jeremie," Aelita said.

Jeremie turned his head to look down at the girl and saw a smile on her face. He smiled back at her, worry finding comfort in the fear inside him.

The door opened, announcing Yolanda's return as the woman walked in with a green water bottle sporting the school's tree logo. "Here we go," she said, handing the bottle to the girl in the bed.

"Your attention students!" Mr. Delmas' voice called over the PA system. "An emendate evacuation has been called for all of Sceaux. Everyone go to the gate at Claude Perrault Avenue to get on the buses, thank you."

Yolanda went straight for her cabinet and pulled out a white metal box with a red cross on it. She turned and looked at the five friends and ordered, "Come on, I was afraid this would happen."

Aelita swung her legs off the bed and stood up, holding onto the water bottle as she closed her eyes.

"You ok?" Jeremie asked, raising his hands to help balance her but afraid to touch her.

"Yeah, got up too fast," Aelita admitted.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you," Yolanda said, worry pulling her face. "Let's go."

"But I need-"

"Everyone will be evacuated, you can count on Jim," Yolanda said, cutting Odd off as she herded the five out of the infirmary.

Smoke could be smelt from the fires as they stepped out of the building. Odd gave Ulrich a glance, Ulrich quickly giving his friend a nod, and Odd ran from the group.

"Odd!" Yolanda exclaimed.

"I have to save Kiwi!" Odd called over his shoulder. He turned his head back to watch where he was running only to run straight into Mr. Rouiller.

"Whoa, Della Robbia!" the grounds keeper exclaimed, grabbing hold of Odd's shoulders. "You're going the wrong way."

"I have to get Kiwi," Odd said, determined to save his dog. He tried to break out of the man's grip only to find the man stronger then he thought.

"Kiwi, who's Kiwi," Mr. Rouiller asked.

"He's my dog," Odd admitted, looking up at the man as he stopped struggling.

"You know-"

"I know we're not aloud pets but he's just a little dog." Odd pled desperately as Mr. Rouiller let go of his shoulders. "Please, you have to let me go back and get him."

"You need to get to the bus," Mr. Rouiller said, pulling off a walky-talky from his belt. "Where is he hiding? I'll get Mr. Morales to grab him."

"He's normally in my wardrobe," Odd explained. "He's a crème rat terrier, only about ten pounds."

"Jim's gonna be thrilled," Mr. Rouiller mumbled before raising the walky-talky to his mouth and hitting the button on the side. "Jim, this is Michel." He released the button and waited a moment.

"Ten-four," Jim's voice responded through the device.

"Check Della Robbia's room, you'll find that dog you've been going on about for a while," Mr. Rouiller said. "Dog's name's Kiwi."

"Della Robbia!" Jim exclaimed.

Odd grabbed the walky-talky out of Mr. Rouiller's hand and pressed the button to talk. "Please, Jim. You've gotta save him."

Mr. Rouiller snatched the walky-talky back out of Odd's hands as Jim said, "Alright Odd, I'll see if I can find him."

Mr. Rouiller put the device back on his belt and grabbed Odd's shoulders. "Alright, Jim's gonna see if he can find your dog. Now you've gotta get on that bus."

Mr. Rouiller walked Odd to the side gate where the buses were parked alongside the road with lines of students. He made sure Odd walked over to the bus Yolanda was standing beside as his friends were checked off of Mrs. Hertz's clip board and up the steps.

"Della Robbia, there you are," Mrs. Hertz said, marking him off her list. "Get on inside."

Odd climbed the steps, worry pulling at his face. He walked over to the empty seat behind Ulrich and Yumi and looked out at the window.

"So, what happened?" Ulrich asked, sitting in the seat so he could look over the back and at his friend.

"They wouldn't let me look," Odd admitted. "Mr. Rouiller called Jim to look for him."

"So they know," Ulrich realized.

Odd nodded his head, looking out the window for the first sign of Jim.

"You can't really get in trouble for it now, can you?" Yumi asked.

"I don't even care about that," Odd admitted. "I just want Kiwi safe." He noticed the amount of students running out of the school was dwindling as Delmas and Sissi appeared among the last of them. The two walked over to the bus Odd sat in and stood outside, talking to Mrs. Hertz. She shook her head, getting Delmas to grab his walky-talky and talk into it. He took her clip board as he waited for an answer and she walked away to one of the other busses.

"Don't worry, Odd, he'll find him," Yumi said, worry on her face.

Jim ran out of the school, his hands empty as he ran over to Delmas. He said something to the man, shaking his head as Odd's stomach dropped. Delmas nodded his head to the bus they stood next to and Jim walked inside. He stopped at the last step and took in who all was sitting inside, his eyes finding Odd's as the boy stared up with his last shred of hope. Jim let out a sigh and walked down the aisle, stopping next to the empty seat next to Odd. "I'm sorry Odd, I couldn't find him."

"There's still time!" Odd exclaimed, standing up. "We have to find him!"

The murmuring that had been filling the air of the bus drew to silence, all attention drawn on to the two.

"Odd, he isn't in the dormitories, and we don't have time to look through-out the whole school," Jim said, shaking his head. "We have to get going if we want to out run the fire. I'm sorry."

Odd dropped to his seat, his face blank as it sunk in that his Kiwi was lost.

"If it helps, dogs are smart," Jim said, resting a hand on Odd's shoulder. "He probably knew something was happening and ran for it long ago. Animals know when things are happening long before humans do."

Odd turned his head to look back at the school, tears building up in his eyes.

Jim took his hand away from Odd, knowing there was nothing else he could say to help.

AN: Another thing I'm mad that they never explained. Why couldn't the Lyoko Warriors just go back into the world after they lost their life points? Lyoko seems to use video game logic for a lot of things, why not extra lives? Hopefully Jeremie's explanation of it is good enough.

I am glad about the fact that so many of the background characters were given names. People that might never had the chance to be talked to, or only had a line or two had names. If anyone knows what happened to Kadic's yearbook I had found back in 2007, let me know. It's gotta be out there somewhere still. Though don't ask me if it was from a French site or an English one. I had started self-teaching myself French at the time, so I spent a lot of time on .fr sites.


	6. Chapter 5 Now It Won't Ever Be The Same

Chapter 5

Now It Won't Ever Be The Same

A raging fire could be seen as four large busses joined the slow moving traffic. Odd closed his eyes and looked away from the fire he could see from his seat, remembering his dog he was forced to leave in the, now destroyed, Kadic Academy.

Jeremie put his arms around Aelita, the girl crying and waiting for when the computer would see the end. Ulrich looked out the window and flinched as he saw another explosion. In the back of his mind he knew what it was. Xana had blown up yet another transformer, causing more destruction.

Yumi looked over at Ulrich in the seat next to her.

"I can't believe he won," Ulrich said, still watching the fire.

"He hasn't won yet," Jeremie said, looking at Ulrich and Yumi over Aelita's head.

"Odd, I'm… I'm so sorry about Kiwi," Sissi said as she sat down next to the purple and pink clad boy.

Odd wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked at her. "Thanks Sissi."

"Hey Sissi, do you know where we're going?" Yumi asked as she turned around to face the principal's daughter.

"Germany, just past the mountains," Sissi said.

"Why are we heading so far?" Yumi asked.

"Daddy wants to get as far away as possible. They think the fire's going to destroy most of France. No one seems to be able to stop it," Sissi said.

"If only I had gotten to the tower in time," Aelita said.

"It wasn't your fault Aelita," Jeremie said, gently brushing her matted hair out with his hand. "The Scyphozoa came out of nowhere."

"What is he talking about?" Sissi asked Yumi.

"Nothing important," Yumi said as she turned back around to face the front of the bus. "Not anymore."

Ulrich jumped as a bright light came from the Sevres River, the one the factory was on. He looked over at Aelita and Jeremie and saw that her eyes were closed, her head leaning on Jeremie's shoulder. Jeremie was still brushing out her hair, even though Ulrich's thoughts were on the worst.

Aelita's eyes opened and she looked up at Jeremie, "I wish I could've said good bye."

Jeremie knew she was talking about her father and realized he had his computer bag with him still. "You might be able to," Jeremie said as he pulled out his computer from the bag at the floor and opened it.

On the screen, he pulled up a box and connected it to Lyoko. He typed in a message and waited for a moment for a response.

The message said, **Jeremie, tell Aelita I love her, I am trying to get out of Lyoko and onto the network but if I don't… Where are you heading to? I might be able to find a way of connecting with you there.**

"Daddy!" Aelita exclaimed, her voice no more than a whisper.

Jeremie put the laptop in Aelita's lap, giving her a change to talk to her father.

 **Daddy, we're going to Germany. We haven't been told a specific location yet. I'm sorry Daddy, this is all my fault,** Aelita wrote.

 **I'm sure Jeremie has already told you this, but don't blame yourself,** Franz wrote back. **In the end, it will always be my fault for building this infernal device. I have to go now, I love you Aelita.**

 **I love you too Daddy,** Aelita wrote, not knowing if he was able to see the last message or not.

Aelita shut the laptop and said, "He's going to try to get out to the Network."

"He'll be ok," Jeremie said, trying to comfort her. He wrapped his arms around her as tears started to run down her cheeks.

Ulrich got up and made it around Yumi's legs to the center aisle.

"Ulrich, where're you going?" Yumi asked, moving her legs out of his way.

Ulrich stopped and turned around as he said, "If we're going to Germany, I know a place where we can stay that's big enough for the whole school."

Yumi's eyes widened as he turned back towards the front of the bus. She watched him stop next to Delmas, sitting in the seat behind Jim, who was driving.

"Where could be big enough for about 200 students?" Yumi asked.

"His place," Odd said as he got so he could look at her from his seat behind her. "Or well, his family's place."

"His place must be a palace," Sissi said.

"Close," Odd said. "His family's owned this castle in Germany for centuries now. His grandparents live there right now. They're kinda important people over there."

The three watched as Delmas scooted over in his seat, letting Ulrich sit next to the man.

"What, with the government?" Sissi asked.

"I guess," Odd shrugged his shoulders. "Ulrich never really explained it. I just know his family's used to getting their way."

They watched as Ulrich pulled out his phone and made a call. He was only three seats away but with all the chatter on the bus, they couldn't make out what he was saying.

"You think his father will let us stay there?" Yumi asked no one in particular.

"I hope so," Sissi admitted. "Daddy's plan didn't seem to have an end. I don't think we had a destination in mind past where we plan to stay the night."

"Where's that?"

"Some gas station out in Metz."

Ulrich got up from his seat next to Delmas, pocketing his phone. He nodded to the man before walking back to his friends. He rested his hand on the back of Yumi's seat and said, "Well, we're going to Stern Castel."

AN: I was pointed to the fact that the light seen on the Sevres River might be taken as the return to the past starting up, even though the tower is still activated and only Franz is in Lyoko. I just want to clear that up, it's not a return to the past. It's an explosion bright enough for Ulrich to believe the factory was getting blown up. He didn't realize that, now that Aélita had her memories back, it wasn't going to kill her like it had just a few days before would have. Sorry about the confusion. I will learn to write better.


	7. Chapter 6 Dreams

Chapter 6

Dreams

Hours had passed before they stopped for dinner in the far edge of Metz, France. The students filled out, glad for a chance to stretch their legs as the sun started setting behind the buildings around them. This far from Sceaux and where the fire started hadn't been forced to evacuate yet, but according to the radio Jim had been listening to on the way over it seemed like only a matter of time.

Delmas ordered everyone stay in the groups they had ridden down in, assigning a teacher to watch over each group and make sure no student got left behind.

Night came, forcing the students to sleep on the busses. "Hello everybody!" Rosa called out, her arms loaded down with blankets as Yolanda followed closely behind the large woman with pillows in her arms. Yolanda placed what she had in her hands on the first seat and disappeared out of the bus, grabbing more pillows. A few voices replied to Rosa's hello, getting a sad smile out of the woman. "I know it's been a long, stressful day," Rosa started as she walked down the aisle, passing out blankets to everyone with Yolanda giving out pillows, "but we're alive. We're together. And soon we'll be safe."

Rosa stopped next to Odd and Sissi, handing the girl two blankets. "Odd, I heard about…" Rosa's voice trailed off before she whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Thanks Rosa," Odd said, taking a blanket from Sissi.

Rosa gave him a sad look before turning and handing Aelita and Jeremie blankets, continuing on her way down the aisle.

Yolanda made her way along behind the large woman, handing Yumi and Ulrich their pillows. She gave the last two she had in her hands to Aelita and Jeremie and asked, "Aelita, how are you feeling?"

"Good, and don't worry," Aelita said, grabbing the water bottle that was sitting between her and Jeremie, "I'm doing my best to keep drinking."

Yolanda gave them a smile before turning around to grab more pillows to hand out.

Soon everyone had a pillow and blanket and the lights were turned off. Ulrich put his pillow against the window and leaned on it to hold it up, wrapping himself in the blanket. He closed his eyes, not sure if he would even get to sleep.

He felt Yumi moving around beside him, trying to get comfortable. He glanced over at her only to smile as she punched the pillow against the back of her chair. He let out a smirk, getting her attention.

"Sorry," Yumi said.

"It's ok," Ulrich said, trying to hide his amusement. He moved closer to the window and looked back at her. "You can lean on me."

"Oh, I couldn't," Yumi said, shaking her head.

"Look," Ulrich started, "you're not going to get to sleep like that, I'm not going to get any sleep with you moving around like that, and neither is any of the rest of the bus. Just lean on me."

Yumi rolled her eyes as she saw him smile. Ulrich leaned back onto his pillow on the window and felt Yumi put her pillow on his side.

Yumi leaned on him, pulling her blanket up to her shoulders. Ulrich watched her reflection in the window, her eyes closing as exhaustion took over. Ulrich felt her breathing go to a soft, smooth rhythm and soon fell asleep himself.

-.-.-.-

Ulrich's face felt hot, getting him to open his eyes. Sunlight streamed in through the window as he sat up, stretching his arms high above his head. His arms froze as he remembered how he had gone to sleep, getting him to look at the now empty seat next to him. "Yumi?" Ulrich asked, wondering where the girl could've gone.

Ulrich stood up and took in the bus, surprised to see he was the last one left in the bus. He dropped his blanket to the ground and walked down the aisle, taking the steps to get off the bus only to be assaulted by a wave of heat. His arm raised to protect his face, surprised by what he felt.

"Ulrich!"

Yumi's voice! Ulrich dropped his arm, recognizing the voice only to gape at what he saw. They were back at Kadic, the flames licking at the bus. Yumi was being pulled into the fire by one of Xana's specters. "Yumi!" Ulrich exclaimed, dropping the last step to the sidewalk. He ran into the fire, a hand reaching for her only to trip over something. He landed hard to the ground and pushed himself up, glancing back at what he tripped over only to see Kiwi's body. He turned to pick the dog up, worried for his condition in the fire, only to find the dog to be dead, his crème fur burnt off and his exposed skin crispy. Ulrich quickly pushed himself back, disgusted at what he saw.

"Ulrich! Help!"

Ulrich turned away from Kiwi's corps and looked for Yumi through the smoke and flames. He scrambled to his feet, desperate to find her. "Yumi! Where are you!?" Ulrich called out.

"Ulrich!"

Ulrich ran in the direction of the voice, not caring about the fire that raged all around him.

A scream sounded only to be cut short.

Ulrich jumped over a tree that had fallen over, careful of the flames eating it away, and skidded to a stop. On the ground laid Yumi, her neck at an awkward angle, her eyes glazed over and not focusing on anything. Above her stood a ghostly specter, the head showing the eye of Xana as it turned to look at Ulrich.

"You killed her," Ulrich said, his voice cracking and barely understandable.

Xana tilted his head, staring at Ulrich. He nodded his head, acknowledging the fact that was known.

Ulrich let out a scream, throwing himself at the specter. He grabbed the specter around the neck, struggling to strangle Xana. Xana pulled back a fist and punched Ulrich in the face, knocking him back and ripping his neck free from Ulrich's hands. Xana quickly kicked up, landing his foot in Ulrich's chest. Ulrich fell back, landing on Yumi's body. He opened his eyes, staring into Yumi's lifeless eyes, before a searing pain stabbed his chest.

Ulrich's eyes flashed open, his heart racing as he realized where he was. Still sitting on the bus, his head still pushed against the pillow resting against the window. He turned his head to see Yumi, still asleep on the pillow resting against his side.

He looked out the window and saw the sun rising over the buildings around them parked at the gas station they had spent the night at as his nightmare replayed in his head. He rested a hand on his chest where he still felt the after effect of his mind thinking he was getting stabbed there, his heart only now slowing down. Ulrich felt Yumi move and was about to say something when he felt her hand rest on his thigh underneath his blanket.

Ulrich tried to see if her eyes were open and found that she was still asleep. He smiled as he reached around her pillow and brushed some hair away that had fallen down as she slept, softly putting it behind her ear. A smile pulled at her face, getting him to freeze, afraid she was waking up. He quickly pulled his hand back and looked out the window just in time to see Delmas walking back to the bus from the gas station.

The door to the bus opened and Ulrich saw Delmas climb the steps to get back on the bus. He said something in a whisper to Jim, who was sitting in the seat Delmas had sat in the day before.

Ulrich watched Jim get up from his seat and lean over to the driver's seat. He picked up the CB and switched it to go through the inside speakers. "Morning all you sleepy heads!" Jim said "That's right, it's seven in the morning. Who wants breakfast?! Other than you, Odd."

Some students laughed as the bus started to wake up.

Yumi opened her eyes and sat up, stretching her arms downward as she let out a large yawn.

"Morning," Ulrich said as she stretched.

"Uhg, good morning," Yumi said after stretching. She placed her forehead against the seat in front of her and mumbled, "I had the weirdest dream."

"What was it about?" Ulrich asked, his mind flashing back to his own nightmare.

"Oh, something about heading to Presto Burger, I think," Yumi said, her checks blushing as she turned to look at Ulrich, her head still pushed up against the chair's back. She gave Ulrich a smile and added, "One of those things that makes no sense when you wake up."

"Come on," Odd said. He stood up and leaned over the two, his blond and purple hair falling out of its normal shape and down as gravity pulled on it. "I'm hungry."

Yumi and Ulrich looked up and saw him. "Odd, what happened to your hair?" Yumi asked.

Odd looked up, only to have part of his hair get him in the face as it continued to fall. "My jell was still at school."

"You're hair's never been down, has it?" Sissi asked as she stood up. Students passed them on their way to get off the bus to find out what was for breakfast as others were as slow to getting out of their chairs.

Sissi got into the aisle as Odd said, "I changed it to this style after I started school at Kadic. You, personality, inspired it."

"Oh really?" Sissi asked, thinking it true.

"Are the Einstines awake?" Ulrich asked, looking around Yumi towards the two still curled up across from Sissi.

Yumi stood up and took the step behind Sissi. She grabbed Aelita's shoulder and gently shook it. "Wake up, Princess."

"Huh?" Aelita asked, her eyes still mostly shut as she looked up at Yumi.

"Breakfast time," Yumi informed.

Aelita pushed herself up, letting the blanket fall into her lap, as she let out a yawn.

"Come on, Jeremie, you too," Yumi said, leaning over to push on his knee.

"I'm up," Jeremie said, sitting up now that Aelita wasn't laying on him. He reached down to the floor and pulled up his glasses, placing them on his face before standing up to stretch. "Sleeping in a vehicle's not fun," he mumbled.

"I'm gonna go find out what we're having for breakfast," Sissi said, stepping aside Yumi to walk out of the bus.

"Hey, where're Herve and Nicolas?" Aelita asked, just realizing she hadn't seen them since the evacuation.

"They got put on another bus," Odd answered for the retreating form of the girl. "She wanted to ride with her father and they got put in Fumet's bus." His stomach let out a growl, getting the group's attention.

"Alright Odd, we're getting up," Aelita said, a smile on her face as she stood up.

"I can't help it."

Aelita and Jeremie led the way out of the bus, finding that the gas station had helped Rosa and Gaston prepare breakfast for the group. A long line had formed to the front door as students waited to grab their plate, and any spot able to be sat in was filling up as everyone was forced to eat at one time.

"Have you heard anything more from Franz?" Yumi asked as they waited in the fast moving line.

"No, but I've kept my laptop turned off for most of the trip," Jeremie admitted. "Who knows when we'll get somewhere that I can charge it."

"If I remember right, we've only got about three more hours," Ulrich offered.

Yumi pulled out her cell phone and looked at the screen only to find nothing there.

"Worried about your parents?" Ulrich asked, glancing at her.

Yumi looked up from her phone and said, "Yeah, I wish I knew what happened to them."

"Don't worry, they got out and are probably looking for you right now," Ulrich said. "They're probably just having to do what Jeremie is, and can't respond right now."

Yumi slid her phone closed and put it back in her pocket. "I hope you're right."

AN: sorry about that mental image of Kiwi, it still haunts me but with how long Ulrich's been living with the dog, I think he would haunt Ulrich as well.


	8. Chapter 7 Stern Castle

Chapter 7

Stern Castle

The line of buses finally turned into a long driveway that winded up hill in the small town of Stuttgard, Germany. At the very top of the hill sat an enormous castle that looked to be taken out of a fairy tale. The busses pulled up into a round-a-bout driveway and stopped in a long line. Standing at the start of a walk way into the main door of the castle was an elderly couple with a man in a monkey suit. Next to them was another couple, the man in a light brown suit and his wife next to him. Behind them was a line of people all dressed in matching black and white uniforms counting to be at least twenty people waiting at attention.

"Oh no," Ulrich said, sliding down in his seat.

Yumi looked out the window and saw what had caused Ulrich's reaction, "This is going to be fun while we're here."

"Can I run and scream now?" Odd asked, looking out his own window.

"I'll do the running, you do the screaming," Ulrich said.

The bus's engine was cut as Jim and Delmas stood up. "Ulrich?" Jim called, looking back at the teen.

Ulrich stood up and followed them off the bus. As soon as he took one step off the bus, Violet Stern stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

"Oma!" Ulrich whined, but still gave her a hug back all the same.

His grandmother let go and put him an arm's length away as she said, "Let me look at you, it's been years since you've come to visit."

"Mother," Bruno Stern said. He walked over to join them, his face in its normal scowl.

Violet let go of Ulrich as his grandfather and mother walked over to join them.

"You must be Jim and Jean-Pierre," Violet said as Oswald Stern shook hands with the two men. "We are so sorry with what is going on in France, but I hope you can make use of the west and north wing for your schooling until everyone's parents can be found."

"Thank you, ma'am," Mr. Delmas said, nodding his head towards the elderly woman. He looked at the older man and added, "We all thank you."

"I've already taken the liberty of assigning rooms," Bruno said, nodding towards the butler standing just behind them. The man handed Ulrich's father a clipboard full of papers. Bruno looked through the first few pages before handing it over to Delmas. "While you're here, I believe the ball room would work for a cafeteria, we are already working on placing tables and chairs enough to seat everyone. A few of the rooms in the north wing are being converted into school rooms, and beds are being set up in the rooms on the west side."

Delmas and Jim looked through the pages quickly, as Jim said, "Wow, thank you for going ahead and setting all of this up."

"Come here, Ulrich dear," Carole Stern said, placing a hand around Ulrich's shoulders. "I got them to clean out your old room so you can sleep there tonight."

"I'd like to help my friends get settled in," Ulrich said, looking up at his mother.

"If you wish," Carole nodded her head.

"Let's go ahead and unload the buses and get started figuring out where everybody's staying," Violet said, "I'm sure everyone's tired of just sitting around by now."

"I want to make an announcement before everyone heads out though," Bruno said.

Jim nodded his head before walking back into the bus he had driven for the past six hours and picked up the CB. "Alright everyone, single file out of the bus. Stay in the court yard for an announcement from Mr. Stern," Jim said as the students started standing up. "After that, we'll figure out where your rooms are."

Jim placed the receiver back on the console and led the group out, heading to the next bus to repeat himself.

Ulrich stepped away from his family and found his friends as they walked out of the bus.

"What does you dad want to say to us?" Jeremie asked, his hand holding the strap of his computer bag resting on his back.

"I don't know," Ulrich shook his head. "Probably about how the school should owe him something."

"Isn't it really your grandparents we should owe?" Odd asked, the five stopping on the grass to the side of the line of servants.

"You know my dad," Ulrich shrugged.

They waited while the other buses unloaded students, keeping an eye out for those they knew.

"I thought there were more going to Kadic," Aelita said, seeing the count of students only in the hundreds.

"A lot of day students were already off campus when the evacuation was called," Yumi pointed out.

"But where's William or Theo?" Ulrich asked, realizing he hadn't seen either boy since the evacuation.

"Oh, I thought you knew," Sissi said, overhearing their conversation from where she stood a few feet away. "William was called home a few days ago. Some family emergency."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Yumi said, vaguely remembering a teacher say that.

"And Theo's family had a trip this week, so they took him out of school," Sissi informed. "Though everyone else was supposed to be at school."

"Then why does it feel like we're missing so many people?" Jeremie asked, taking in the group he could see. He noticed a group of upperclassmen all talking to one another on the other end of the court yard and turned to see the middle school group, most of the classes staying together but none of the groups looked as large as they should be.

"Daddy said something to Jim about the fire department ordering us to leave when we did," Sissi admitted, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked down at her feet. "Not everyone was able to get on the buses."

"We left people!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"Shush!" Sissi ordered, quickly placing a hand over his mouth as only the people closest were looking their way. "No one's supposed to know."

Ulrich pulled Sissi's hand away from his mouth, a scowl on his face. "When was your father going to let us know?" Ulrich asked, his voice lowered.

"I don't know," Sissi shook her head.

"May I have your attention, students of Kadic Academy!" Bruno Stern called out, his voice being projected by a bull horn. He waited a moment as the talking quieted down and everyone was turned towards him and his family. "The moment you crossed the France/German border, you became French refugees unless already a German citizen. In the morning, people from the BAMF or Federal Office for Migration and Refugees will be here to help those trying to find family lost in France or contact family elsewhere. For the time being, classes will be held in the castle. Ask any of the staff if you get lost but we will be giving you a tour today after we finish the matter of finding everyone a room and lunch."

Odd's stomach growled loud enough to remind his friends of the time.

"I ask you to be courteous and to leave the upper floors alone. This castle is over two hundred years old and some towers are being refurbished." Bruno nodded his head, his speech over, and handed the bull horn to Jim.

"Now for the matter of rooming," Jim said, his voice piercing the bull horn for a moment before he was able to continue. "For those of you who lived in the dorm, please find your roommate so we can easily room everybody and stand in the right court yard. For those of you who either didn't have a roommate or lived off campus, I want you to stand in the left court yard."

"Guess, see you in a bit," Yumi said to Ulrich and Odd.

"I'll see what I can do about getting you into my old room," Ulrich said to Jeremie.

Jeremie nodded his head before following the girls away to the group that was being formed on the left side.

"Come on," Ulrich said, waving Odd to follow him.

"I don't know if your dad's gonna like that," Odd pointed out.

"Which is why I'm going straight to my grandma," Ulrich said, a smile on his face as he led Odd over to his family watching the students move around on the lawn. He stepped over to the elder woman and said, "Oma, is there any way my friends could share my room? I'm sure the room's big enough for three beds."

"You sure?" Violet asked, tilting her head at the teen. "I thought you would like a room all to yourself again."

"Odd's my roommate at school anyway, but Jeremie doesn't normally have a roommate so I just thought it would be easier on him if we all just shared a room," Ulrich offered, avoiding her question.

Violet glanced over at Bruno helping Delmas before looking back at her grandson. She gave him a smile before nodding her head. "You'll have to find a bunk for them both, but I'm sure there's some more up in the storage. Though I can't ask anyone to get it for you with how many students there are."

"We can get them," Odd said, a smile on his face.

"Go get Jeremie, I'll let them know," Violet said before walking away to go talk to the men.

AN: I wanna say this here, I did not map out their trip. Not until I realized I had no idea how long it would actually take them driving from Kadic in Seaux, France to where Stern Castle is supposed to be in Stuttgard, Germany. I looked at a map to find a good stopping point for the middle of the night, finding Metz, but it wasn't until I was proofing this that I realized I wanted to know how long it would take to drive the way. Come to find out it would take about six hours if driven straight and Metz is actually a good stop in the middle. Making it so that when they left Kadic at around 6pm, they would've gotten to Metz around 9 for a late dinner and called it a night. Leaving Metz around 9am the next morning they made it to Stuttgard around 12 and, knowing Odd, we will not be able to forget what time it is.


	9. Chapter 8 Don't Get Lost

Chapter 8

Don't Get Lost

"I can't believe your dad agreed to this," Jeremie said, following Ulrich and Odd up polished wooden steps.

"It wasn't really my dad," Ulrich admitted. "But Grandma said it was ok."

"So where is your room?" Odd asked as they stepped on the landing for the second floor.

"Third floor," Ulrich said, leading the two down the hall. He looked around, finding the doorway he was looking for and opened it to show more stairs. "Though this place is smaller than I remember."

Jeremie let out a laugh. "I think you just got bigger. You were four when you were last here?"

"Only you can get away with saying a castle's smaller then you remember," Odd pointed out, walking up more stairs.

"Really I never wanted to come back here," Ulrich admitted, pushing open the door at the end of the stairs.

"Why? It's a literal castle," Odd pointed out, swinging his arms to motion around them. "This thing looks like it belongs in an old Disney movie."

"The Sterns haven't always been on the right side of history," Ulrich mumbled. "Come on, my room's just down this way."

Odd stole a glance at Jeremie as they followed their friend down the hallway to a doorway at the end.

Ulrich pushed opened the door and stepped in, turning the light switch on the wall to light up the room. He let out a sigh as Odd and Jeremie walked in behind him. "I thought Oma said she had the room cleaned."

"I guess she just meant, how you had it when you left," Odd offered, seeing the canape queen bed covered in a superhero bed spread and matching pillows. Beside the bed was a nightstand with a lamp of the same superhero holding the bulb in one hand as he flew upwards and a matching alarm clock with the hero's head the face of the clock. The opposite side of the room was set up as a child's play room, a toy chest and small table and chairs filling the space.

"Maybe we can cram all that in the closet," Ulrich thought aloud. He walked into the room and opened the closet door that was along the wall to the hallway. He stepped inside, pulling the light cord, as he mumbled, "What on earth?"

Odd followed his friend inside the closet, surprised to see the castle even had closets to begin with, only to be even more surprised to see it filled with cloths Ulrich could fit into now. "I guess your grandma went shopping."

Jeremie stuck his head into the small room, seeing the plethora of cloths and asked, "When did she have time to do all of this? She only found out yesterday."

"That's Oma for ya, if she wants something done, it gets done," Ulrich said. He looked down at the ground and saw a line of shoes sat against the wall across from the line of pants. Noticing the dress shoes he added, "I hope she doesn't plan on throwing a party while we're here."

"I don't know, a party might be just what everybody needs," Odd offered, walking out of the closet as Ulrich turned around.

"Everybody's been through enough, I wouldn't wanna add insult to injury. Not with her parties," Ulrich said, following Jeremie out of the closet. "Help me get this junk in there and we'll go get you two some beds."

In no time the three had pulled down two mattresses and the pieces of a bunk bed to start building in the area that had been the play room.

"You got it?" Ulrich asked, holding up the headboard for the top bunk as Jeremie held the footboard.

"Hang on," Odd said, making sure the metal that held the two boards together under the mattress was secure. He stepped back and said, "Ok, you can let go."

Jeremie released his end as Ulrich did the same, the two holding their breath as they prayed it stayed upright. The bunkbed stayed together, letting Jeremie breathe a sigh of relief. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, swiping his bangs out of his way.

"Why do you have so many beds?" Odd asked, pulling at the first mattress to get it to lay on the bottom bunk.

"Family reunions, any time Oma has a party, sometimes at the same time." Ulrich reached down and helped Odd get the mattress in place. "Then of course when anyone gets married, it always takes place here. Same with funerals, since the family's cemetery's out back." He let go of the mattress and looked over at his friends. "The west wing's just where everyone normally stays."

"I was going to say something about the cemetery but then again, we're in a castle," Odd said, shaking his head as he reached down to pick up one end of the second mattress.

Ulrich picked up the other end and the two lifted it up to push onto the top bunk. "I wish I had a normal family," Ulrich admitted.

"Think about it this way," Jeremie started, standing on the other side of the bunk bed so that he could pull at the top mattress as they pushed it up. "If you didn't have a castle in your family, who knows where we'd be staying right now. I wouldn't be able to charge up my laptop right now either."

"Any news?" Ulrich asked after giving one last push on the mattress.

"It died after we crossed the border," Jeremie admitted with a shake of his head. He walked around the bunk bed, leaning against the footboard as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I guess I checked it one too many times."

"What are we going to do?" Odd asked.

"I guess we need to find you some sheets," Ulrich said, realizing he forgot that.

"I mean about Lyoko," Odd pointed out.

The three walked out of the room, following Ulrich down the hallway up to yet another set of stairs heading up to the fourth floor.

"We don't know for certain that it didn't survive the fire," Jeremie pointed out. "I can't see Xana purposely destroying the factory."

"But he doesn't need the factory to survive anymore, right?" Ulrich asked, stepping onto a landing and leading them right, down another hall.

"No, but if he wanted to destroy the factory, he would've done it right after he learned how to get into the Network," Jeremie pointed out. "That would've been the best way to assure that we couldn't fight him. So for some reason, he still needs the factory."

"So there's still a chance we could fix this?" Ulrich asked, leading them to a doorway. He opened the door and turned the switch, illuminating a room of shelves, filled with all types of linings. He stepped in and grabbed two bundles, a red set and a gray set, and turned back to his friends. "Here." He handed Odd the two sets of sheets and turned back to the room to look for something else.

"If we could get back to the factory, there might be," Jeremie nodded his head. "I have to check something on my computer to make sure though."

"Well then there's the problem of getting back," Odd pointed out. "It took us a day to get here, and that was on bus. We don't have a car, and they wouldn't let us back into France even if we did. The whole country's under lockdown."

Ulrich found what he was looking for and pulled out a bundle of white towels. "There, um, is another way to get back there," Ulrich said, turning to them with the bundle in his arms. "Down the hill in the back, there's a privet runway."

"Do you know how to fly?" Odd asked, sounding like the question would take away the plane idea.

Ulrich shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave the room, leaving Jeremie to turn the switch to turn off the light. "Ernst started teaching me back a few years ago," Ulrich admitted.

"You know how to fly a plane?" Odd asked, dumfound.

Ulrich didn't respond. He just continued walking down the hallway and down the stairs to get back to his room.

AN: Did some research, there doesn't seem to be any age limit on when you can start learning how to fly a plane. For most of the states, it seems you have to be 16 before you can fly solo (and only 14 for hot air balloons and gliders), but only have to be able to understand what you're being taught to start. Too bad I don't know of anyone to teach me. That'd be cool to learn.


	10. Chapter 9 Carole Stern

Chapter 9

Carole Stern

"Ugh, it's nice to finally be able to relax for a moment," Yumi said as she sat down in a metal patio chair outside the back of the castle. Aelita followed her to the chair next to her, glad to join the guys after finding their room.

"Which room did you get?" Ulrich asked from his seat at the table surrounded by his friends.

"The corner room, overlooking the rose garden," Aelita said.

"Oh, ok, that room," Ulrich nodded his head, knowing where the room was.

"Dien mittagessen, Meister Ulrich."

The five turned towards the voice, finding the butler from earlier standing behind Ulrich, pushing a cart of food.

"Oh, danke, Klaus," Ulrich said, surprise on his face. "Aber ich könnte-"

"Your father, he ordered this," Klaus said in broken French. He pulled out plates of food, sitting them down in front of each person and made sure everyone had silverware before reaching down into the bottom shelf of the cart. He pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and five glasses. The five sat in silence as he worked, not sure what to say.

Klaus filled up the glasses and left the pitcher in the center of the table before nodding at Ulrich, asking, "Gibt es noch etwas?"

"Nein, Klaus, danke," Ulrich said, disappointment in his voice.

"Sehr gut," Klaus nodded his head once more before turning around and walking with his rolling cart back into the castle.

"That was Klaus, our butler," Ulrich explained. He looked down at the food on his plate, noticing a thick slice of rouladen as the main part of their meal with a side of blaukraut. Silently he blanched at the thought of the red cabbage.

"I wasn't expecting them to serve _us_ ," Yumi admitted, picking up her fork to start eating.

"Oma said she would let me know when lunch was ready," Ulrich said, cutting up his rouladen.

"There you are, Ulrich dear," Carole's voice called out as the woman walked out the door of the castle. She walked over to the table and placed a hand on the back of Ulrich's chair.

"Where's dad?" Ulrich asked, knowing she didn't get too much time alone.

"Your father believes the students need his ever present eye over them, so he's eating with your headmaster and teachers," Carole said, a smile on her face. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Ulrich stood up and slid his chair closer to Yumi's giving the woman a spot to pull up an extra chair at the table next to him and Odd.

"Hier sind sie, herrin," Klaus said as he appeared walking from the castle with a single plate in hand and a glass in the other. He sat in down in front of where she was now sitting and poured her a drink. "Gibt es noch etwas?"

"No, danke." Carole nodded her head at the man.

Klaus left them, letting Carole turn to look her son's friends over. "I'm sorry we haven't been able to talk before this," Carole started as she started to cut her food and eat. "Ulrich's told me a bit about you all so let's see if I can match a face to the names." She looked at the purple clad teen sitting next to her, his plate almost empty, as her smile grew. "I think you're Odd. Jeremie Belpois, is it?" Jeremie nodded his head, getting her to continue. "Aelita, and Yumi Ishiyama."

"Ulrich's told you a lot about us?" Yumi asked, reaching for her glass.

"Only a little bit," Carole admitted. "Enough to know my husband's wrong about you all. Don't listen to what he says, he does just want what's best. Sometimes he can't see when the best is already in front of him." She took a bite and quickly swallowed it, saying, "Oh, before I forget. Your Phys Ed teacher, Mr. Morales is it? He's making shifts for the students to run into town and grab a few necessities. I believe your class was on the list to go after lunch."

Yumi looked over at Jeremie, a thought flashing between the two as Jeremie shook his head. Odd looked away from the woman.

"What is it?" Carole asked, surprised to see the turn in atmosphere.

"The idea's nice," Jeremie started, "but I know for us, and I'm sure for a lot of other students, most of us don't have much money with us."

"That's all been taken into consideration," Carole said. "The Sterns are going to pay for anything deemed necessary, such as toiletries, a few days of clothes, and the like."

"Oh, thank you," Aelita said, surprised.

"It's not like you asked to be forced out France," Carole said, pity on her face. "Somethings are just beyond anyone's control."

"When does the bus leave?" Ulrich asked.

"Two thirty." Carole looked at the inside of her left wrist to check the time and said, "About half an hour from now. But didn't your grandmother fill your closet?"

Ulrich rolled his eyes but nodded his head.

"Anyway, your father wants to talk to you while your friends are shopping," Carole added.

"Great," Ulrich said, sarcasm dripping off the word as he shoved the last of his roulade into his mouth.

"You're not gonna eat the rest?" Odd asked.

"You _like_ that stuff?" Ulrich asked, surprised as he handed his plate over to Odd.

"It's ok," Odd said before he started eating the last of Ulrich's meal.

AN: You never realize how much you know words but have no idea how to spell them when you start pulling from a language you don't use that much. I grew up with my mom speaking German all the time, so I knew the words. I moved away from her about five years now and haven't really done anything in German since then until writing this. The words came to me, the spelling did not. And some of these words, when I looked them up, I realized, "oh! That's how you spell that!"

Oh, and for those that are curious, rouladen's beef sliced thinly, wrapped around pork belly, onions, pickles, and mustard. Braise it in the oven and normally served with gravy over it. Mom would put it with sauerkraut, but I found that, at least in circles Ulrich's family would be a part of, isn't what is normally served with it. Instead they say to serve it with blaukraut or dumplings. I still say sauerkraut's only good in a Rubén.

ODD: Man, you're making me hungry all over again!

AN: Go, the bus is about to leave.


	11. Chapter 10 10 Euros

Chapter 10

10€

"You wanted to see me?" Ulrich asked, standing in the doorway to his father's office. He had just watched his friends leave on the bus a moment ago and now he stood here, waiting for his father to look at him.

Bruno looked up from squaring a pile of papers on his desk. He sat the pile down and placed a hand on the desk, leaning where he stood. "Sit down," he ordered.

Ulrich walked in and sat in the seat facing his father's desk. Not sure what to expect from his father, the normal butterflies played around in his stomach.

"You're behind in your schooling again," Bruno stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

 _This again_ , Ulrich rolled his eyes. "I'm not surprised," Ulrich muttered.

"Don't you care?!" Bruno exclaimed.

"Yes, I care!" Ulrich threw back at his dad, looking up at the man. His heart started pounding, wishing he could tell the man the real reason why he was struggling so much lately but knew he couldn't.

"It doesn't look like you do," Bruno said. "I talked to a few of your teachers today at lunch. Ulrich, they know you have potential, I know you have potential. Where is it?"

Ulrich looked down at his lap, unsure of what he could say.

Bruno rubbed the bridge of his nose, as if fighting a headache. "Once everyone is able to find family and leave the castle, you're moving back here permanently and are going to have private tutors."

Ulrich looked up at him in surprise, only for the emotion to evaporate off his face. With everything that had happened, this time he could understand why his dad was getting what he had always wanted. No one else knew where they were going, if their families were ok, what tomorrow would bring. Kadic Academy was no more. He looked back down at his lap and mumbled, "Yes, sir."

"Now come on," Bruno said, taking a step away from his desk. "And button up your shirt."

Ulrich looked up at him, confused.

"You're going to sit in on the interviews," Bruno explained. "With all these students here and a school being run in this castle, we need more staff."

-.-.-.-

"I hate cloths shopping," Yumi grumbled as she and Aelita walked through the woman's department.

"It's not that bad," Aelita said, pulling out a pink shirt from a rack and held it up to her shoulders for size. "What do you think?"

Yumi looked at her friend and smiled. "It's you."

Aelita lowered the shirt, her eyes caught on something as her smile disappeared. Her eyebrows sank into her face as she let out an, "Awww."

Yumi turned to see what had caught Aelita's attention on to see stuffed animals had been placed on the end shelf of the next department. A row of stuffed dogs sat about eye level, one being a short, crème dog with a long muzzle. "Kiwi," Yumi mumbled.

Aelita walked over to the shelf and plucked the small dog off the shelf, bringing it with her back to Yumi. "It's just missing his collar," Aelita said, her voice horse.

Yumi grabbed the tag hanging off the small dog's ear and looked for a price. "Ten euros, and you know this wouldn't count as a necessity."

Aelita placed the shirt still in her hand back on the rack and reached into her jumper pocket. She pulled out her fisted hand and opened it to look at what she had. "I've only got five."

Yumi reached into her pocket and pulled out a few coins. "Three."

"Do you think Jeremie might have any on him?" Aelita asked, looking up at her friend.

Yumi looked in the opposite direction then the shelf that held the stuffed animals and saw two heads of blonde hair. She stuck her money back in her pocket and said, "I'll go check."

"Don't let Odd know. If we can, I wanna surprise him," Aelita said, looking the dog over with sad eyes.

Yumi nodded her head as she started walking away. She sidestepped out of Milly and Tamiya's way, finding it weird seeing everyone from school out shopping, and made it over to Jeremie and Odd. Odd was holding up a pair of paints, trying to see if they would fit him. "Hey, you got any change?" Yumi asked, announcing her presence.

The two looked at her as Jeremie said, "Probably a few centime. Why?"

"Aelita found a stuffed animal she wanted," Yumi said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder towards the pink haired girl just visible over the racks of cloths. "After all Mr. Pück went through and she now loses him. We only need three euros."

Jeremie shifted the bundle of cloths hanging off his arm and reached into his pants pocket as Odd did the same. He pulled out his hand and looked at the coins he had. "I've got one, fifty-five."

"Here's a two," Odd said, finding the coin in his pocket. He handed it towards Yumi as she plucked the one euro coin out of Jeremie's open hand.

"Thanks," Yumi said, a smile on her face. She closed her hand around the coins and hurried back to Aelita.

"Did he have anything?" Aelita asked, the rat terrier still clutched in her hands.

Yumi held out the money she had gotten from them. "Just enough," she said, reaching into her pocket to pull her money back out. "Here, go ahead and pay for him. That way he'll be hidden in a bag as we finish shopping."

Aelita smiled at her friend, taking the money before heading to the front of the building.

Yumi watched the girl walk away and went back to hunting down cloths for herself, taking the pink shirt Aelita had shown interest in. She glanced back over to where she could still see the two boys as a sad smile appeared on her face. She hoped Jim was right and that Kiwi had run away before the fires broke out. She hoped there was some chance that Kiwi was still alive. She'd seen Odd in times of crises and he always managed to crack stupid jokes to try and lighten the mood. The whole trip she hadn't heard one joke from him. Maybe for the time being, this little plush Kiwi might lift his spirits.

AN: This chapter's what pushed me over the edge and made me make my own little Kiwi plush. I looked around to see if someone had already made one, and there only seems to be a couple out there. So I made my own! Right now he's only made out of felt but I plan to use this pattern and make one with fur. I just have to learn how to make his nose better. If you want to see how he turned out, go to my deviantart page and look for Kiwi Plush.

Also random French tidbit I found out while doing research, the French are one of the only groups that use the Euro that call cents "centimes". At least, as far as I can find.


	12. Chapter 11 Button Eyes

Chapter 11

Button Eyes

Ulrich walked the halls of the west wing, unbuttoning his shirt as he went. Two hours of sitting next to his father, listening to him ask the same questions to different people took a toll on him. All he wanted to do now was spend the rest of the afternoon with his friends. He had first checked his room after hearing that their bus had come back from shopping, but it didn't look like Jeremie or Odd had made it up there yet. So he was now walking over to the girls' room, the room he had always grown up knowing as his mother's sitting room. She had used it as a way to get away from everyone. It had a bench seat in the window, overlooking the roses down on the ground below as the ground sloped away from the castle and was always lit by the afternoon sun. A smile appeared on his face, remembering when he had first found her in the room, reading a book in that window seat.

Ulrich got to the last door along the hall and knocked on the door before pushing it open. "Hey, how'd the shopping go?" Ulrich asked, expecting the rest of his friends to be in the room to find only Yumi and Aelita. Aelita quickly shoved something behind her as she sat in the window seat and looked up at him.

"Ulrich!" Yumi exclaimed. "You almost gave us a heart attack."

"Sorry." Ulrich gave her a smile as he closed the door behind himself. "Where's Jeremie and Odd?"

"They went to find your room," Aelita said, pulling out what she had rushed to hide.

"What's that?" Ulrich asked, walking over to them only to stop in his tracks at what was in her hands. "Kiwi."

"Yeah, we found him while out shopping," Aelita admitted, looking down at the dog in her hands. "Once Odd gets back here, we were gonna give it to him."

Ulrich's mind flashed back to the nightmare he had had, worried for how the dog could have survived the fire. He took a breath to settle the range of emotions going through him and said, "He'll love it."

"So what did your father want?" Yumi asked, reaching over to the bags still sitting on her bed to finish unpacking what she had gotten.

Ulrich shoved his hands in his pockets as he leaned against the wall next to the door. "Just that he's getting what he always wanted, me back in this castle and learning from private teachers." Ulrich let out a sigh, looking down at the rug under his feet and noticed the small thorn pattern along the edge.

"But that's only if we can't get this all fixed," Aelita pointed out.

Ulrich looked up at her, waiting for her to continue.

"If Jeremie can get in contact with Franz Hopper like he plans to do, we might learn how the factory's surviving," Aelita said. "If we can get back there and deactivate the tower that is powering the fires, we can start a return trip and everything will be back to how it's supposed to be."

"But at the cost of how many lives?" Yumi asked, sounding like she and the girl had already talked about this before. She folded a shirt and placed it on the pile of cloths she had gotten before turning to look at Aelita. "We've always known that if someone dies and we go back in time, that person is still dead."

"What proof is there?" Aelita asked, staring her friend down. "I think we've done a great job of preventing the worst when Xana attacks. No one has died. Sure, we've gotten close to death ourselves a few times, but there is nothing saying that if someone dies and we go back in time, that that person will still be dead."

"I guess I've just never wanted to take that risk," Yumi said, turning away from Aelita so that she could open the wardrobe at the foot of her bed and start putting her cloths inside.

"I think we're beyond that," Ulrich pointed out. He watched Yumi close the wardrobe and sit down on her bed as he continued, "I glanced at the paper from this morning and it said there was at least fifty known to be dead, and over two hundred labeled as missing. Though I'm sure most of the students here are labeled as missing, 'cause no one can get in contact with their families."

A knock came from the door, getting Ulrich to push himself away from the wall and pull open the door.

"We got lost," Odd admitted, walking into the room with a bag still in hand.

"I told you, if we had turned right at those stairs, we would've made it," Jeremie said, following his friend into the girls' room.

"I'll show you in a minute," Ulrich said, laughter in his voice.

"Odd, we got a present for you," Aelita said, standing up with her hands behind her back.

"Huh? You did?" Odd asked, looking at the girl.

Aelita pulled her hands around her body and held the stuffed dog in both hands outreached to him.

"Kiwi," Odd said, his voice no louder than a whisper. He dropped his bag to the floor and took a step closer to Aelita. He took the stuffed animal in his hands as his eyes welled up. He held the dog close to his chest as tears ran down his cheeks. "Kiwi," Odd repeated himself. He dropped to his knees and hugged the dog, tears streaking down his face. Aelita dropped down to her knees and placed a hand on Odd's shoulder, trying to give comfort where she could.

"Thank you," Odd managed to get out. He looked up at Aelita and saw the tears pooling in her eyes.

Yumi knelt down beside her friend and rubbed his other shoulder. "We will get him back," Yumi said, her voice full of determination.

AN: Oh crap, I almost cried writing this chapter! Kiwi, no! You have to still be alive! Well, I mean, I did write this eight years ago, so I guess I knew what I was doing. Though this chapter only had one sentence that covered what happened back then. This story was only 21 pages originally, with only nine chapters. I think I kinda expanded on that a little.


	13. Chapter 12 Don't Say the Word

Chapter 12

Don't Say the Word

Night settled itself on the large castle as Jim's booming voice started ordering when lights out would be along the west hall. Three stories up, Ulrich sat on his bed with his friends around him, all dressed in what could be counted at pajamas. Ulrich and Aelita sat with their feet hanging off his bed, Odd sitting cross-legged closer to Ulrich's pillow with the plush Kiwi sitting in his lap. On the bottom bunk sat Yumi and Jeremie as he stared down at his laptop sitting on his lap. Silence filled the room interrupted only by the sound of Ulrich's alarm clock ticking away the seconds. Four pairs of hopeful eyes stared at Jeremie as he started typing away on his keyboard.

"Incredible!" Jeremie gasped out, surprising his friends. He looked up at them and said, "Listen to this from Franz Hopper; I'm still on Lyoko, the factory surviving the fire. I'm doing all I can to protect what's left of France for the moment, but with Xana shooting at my tower, it won't last much longer. Get here as soon as you can to defeat Xana and use the return to the past trip to save France and the rest of Europe."

"So he's…" Aelita couldn't find the words to finish her thought.

"Alive and still fighting for us," Jeremie said, a ghost of a smile on his face as he typed away on his laptop.

"But how are we going to get back to Sceaux?" Yumi asked.

"The best time to take the jet would be early in the morning," Ulrich offered. "Maybe about four. That way we'd be before Ernst gets out there and we'd only have to worry about running into Jim or Klaus."

Yumi stared at Ulrich a moment before asking, "You know how to fly a plane?"

"Yeah," Ulrich said with a shrug. "We'll come down and get you in the morning."

"I'll let Franz know," Jeremie said as he typed away. "It would take us about an hour to get there, knowing normal air speeds."

"I hope he can keep Xana at bay for that much longer," Aelita said, worried for her father.

"This is _the_ Franz Hopper you're talking about," Odd said, a smile on his face as he looked over at the girl. "He'll be fine."

Aelita smiled back at him, daring to let his hope fill her.

"Well then, we better get going to bed," Yumi said as she stood up off the bed. "It's gonna be a long day tomorrow."

Aelita let out a yawn as she stood up before being able to say, "Today's been long enough."

"Good night," Ulrich said, looking at the two girls.

"Night," Yumi said, smiling at Ulrich.

"Don't stay up too late, Jeremie," Aelita warned, grabbing his shoulder for a moment.

"I won't," Jeremie mumbled, the light from his laptop reflecting off his glasses as he kept his eyes to what he was working on.

Ulrich watched as the two left the room, closing the door behind them only to not be able to wrench his eyes away. A strong part of him wanted Yumi to stay longer, even though he was already feeling tired himself and knew they all needed to get some sleep.

"Um, earth to Ulrich! Wake up Romeo," Odd said as he waved his hand in front of Ulrich's face.

"Wh-what!?" Ulrich asked, shaking his head to get out of the trance.

"Why don't you just ask her out?" Odd asked, leaning back so that he sat behind his friend.

"Ask who out?" Ulrich asked, turning to look at the strange boy.

"Yumi!" Odd exclaimed, dropping back on the bed so that his head now rested on the pillow, the Kiwi plush locked in his arm. "Everyone knows you like her!"

"I-I don't like her! Not like that!" Ulrich defended, his face heating up as it turned red.

"Sure," Odd let out as he rolled out of the bed. He dropped to the floor on his feet and turned to Jeremie, still typing away on his laptop. "Come on, Einstein, bed time."

"Give me a second," Jeremie mumbled, his hands flying over his keyboard.

Ulrich threw a smile up at Odd. This was the price of being friends with a techno geek. Take the computer away for a day and now he was glued.

"At least I'm on the top bunk," Odd said, walking over to the foot of the bed to climb up the built in latter.

A knock on the door surprised the three, Odd hanging off the side of the bed as Ulrich stood up to answer the door. Ulrich pulled open the door only to be surprised to see Jim standing there.

"Lights out in five minutes," Jim said, looking in at the group.

"We're going," Odd said, finishing his climb up to the top bunk.

"Good." Jim nodded his head, almost as if he wasn't sure what to say now. "Breakfast will be at seven, like normal. I expect to see you all there."

"We'll be there," Ulrich lied. "Night Jim."

"Good night," Jim said before turning to walk back down the hall.

Ulrich watched to make sure Jim went down the right set of stairs before closing the door. "Night Jeremie," Ulrich said as he turned the switch to kill the lights. The room sat illuminated by a strong blue light of his computer as he quickly typed in the last few lines.

"Alright, alright, I got it," Jeremie said, watching his screen for a moment before shutting the laptop.

AN: Finally caught up to the original chapter 7. Man, my writing eight years ago is sooooo cringey! Which makes me worry, ten years from now am I going to pick up Harley's book and find myself cringing from how that that's written? It'll just show that I don't stop learning a better way of writing but it makes me feel bad that Harley ends up being a test subject…


	14. Chapter 13 Hope, There I Said It

Chapter 13

Hope, There I Said It

BRRRRRRRRRRING

BRRRRRRRRRRING

BRRRRRRRRRRi-

Ulrich smacked his hand towards the old alarm clock and laid like that a moment, stretched out on his bed with his arm on his nightstand. He slowly opened his eyes to take in the dark room. He turned his head towards where his arm still laid and squinted to see through sleepy eyes at the clock only to see it read a little after three. His brain slowly reminded him of why he needed to get up so early as he threw off his blankets. He sat up, rubbing his eyes of the sleep still caught there, before clicking on the lamp beside him. He stood up and took the few steps over to where Jeremie was sleeping, shaking his shoulder. "Come on, Einstein, rise and shine," Ulrich mumbled.

Jeremie let out a sound before saying, "I'm up. I'm up."

Ulrich stood straight and reached up to the top bunk, reaching for Odd's arm. "Get up Odd, you can sleep on the way there."

Odd let out a grunt as he sat up, sleep still closing his eyes.

Ulrich went over to his closet and turned on the light inside as he stepped inside. Quickly he got dressed and after a couple of more prods to Odd, the three got ready to head out. Ulrich led them out of the room, closing the door behind them, and took them down a branch off hallway.

"Why are we going this way?" Jeremie asked, gripping the strap of his computer bag as they hurried down the hallway.

"Well, this is an old castle," Ulrich said, a smile on his face as he stopped in front of an inside wall. He pushed against the wall and started to slowly move his hand to his right before a click sounded. A door-shaped square of wall popped away from the wall, opening up to show a dark secret passageway.

"No way," Odd gasped, barely remembering to keep his voice down. He held tight to the plush dog in his arms as he poked his head in the hidden hallway.

"Be careful," Ulrich said, taking the lead down the dark hall. He pulled out a pocket flash light and shined it at the ground. "It's been a while, so I don't know how well they keep these."

The three walked into the secret passageway, Jeremie closing the door behind them to block out any remaining light from the outside world as they traversed down a small sparling stair case.

"It kinda looks like the catacombs," Odd mumbled.

"There's no bones down here," Ulrich said, flashing his light around to show the walls just made out of stone. The floor flattened out and Ulrich lead them down another hallway, the stone closing in on either side as the continued.

"Why is there secret hallways in your castle?" Jeremie asked, following close behind Odd as they came to another set of stairs.

"I don't know," Ulrich shrugged.

"I did a little bit of research last night," Jeremie said, pausing to let his words hang in the dark air.

"So, you just know that my ancestors were stupid," Ulrich said, flashing his light around to make sure he was taking the right turn before leading them down yet another stone walkway. He stopped, hearing their footsteps stop behind him before he turned around. He flashed the light upwards to illuminate their faces and asked, "What did you find out?"

"That your great grandfather acquired a small fortune to keep this place in his name during World War Two and how he did it," Jeremie said.

"Well, like I said, the Sterns haven't always been on the right side of history," Ulrich said, turning his head so he wasn't looking at his friends.

"I don't know, what your grandma tried to do was good," Jeremie said, a smile on his face.

"She failed," Ulrich pointed out.

"She tried," Jeremie added. "How many Jews did she have hiding out in the walls of this castle?"

"And how many of them died where the air strip is now?" Ulrich asked, mad that Jeremie had even looked into his family past. "If she hadn't've been the daughter of a member of the Hitler Cabinet, she would've been executed along with those she tried to save." He turned back down the hall, forcing his friends to follow his fast pace or lose their one light, adding, "The Sterns have gotten away with too many things in the past, and they always seem to still get their way."

"But you're like your grandma," Odd pointed out as they rushed to catch up.

"What, a failure?" Ulrich let out a snort. "I guess you could say that."

"No, though you are thick headed," Odd said, rolling his eyes. "Look at what you're doing. Grand theft aero to save the world. And this time we're not going to fail."

Ulrich stopped at a section of wall, resting his hand against it before turning to look at his friends. He let out a sigh and nodded. "Let's hope you're right." He pushed on the wall, letting in a crack of light, as he turned his flash light off. He stuck his head out of the wall, looking around for any sign of life, before stepping out. He looked at his friends, holding out his hands to say 'to stay where you were' and walked across the hall to the girl's room. Without knocking he pushed open the door and looked in. "You ready?" Ulrich asked, seeing Aelita putting on her shoes as Yumi stood beside her bed.

Aelita nodded her head, standing up, and the two followed Ulrich out of the room.

Ulrich led them to the secret passage and turned his flashlight back on as Yumi closed the wall back up. He led the group through the dark and out to the back of the castle, the five keeping quiet as they left the stone walls and ran down the hill behind the castle.

AN: I wish the states were more like Germany when it comes to their past. Germans know what happened, their history books don't get changed. While here in the states, Native Americans no longer fought for their land and the Civil War was only about slavery. It all goes back to Orson Well's 1984. Those who control history, control the future. And boy how easy is it to change words on a page.


	15. Chapter 14 Up, Up, and Away!

Chapter 14

Up, Up, and Away!

"Yahooo!" Aelita yelled, placing her head as close to the window in the seating area as she could to see the world below her.

Jeremie looked at her, a pained look crossing his face as he dug his fingernails into the plush seat he sat in. "Aelita, will you sit down!"

Aelita looked at him, a pout on her face as she did as she ordered.

"You don't like flying, do you Einstein?" Odd asked, leaning over the armrest of his seat to grab a sandwich he had made with what he found in the kitchen.

"No, I don't!" Jeremie admitted, panic on his face. "First time in a proper plane and it has to be _Ulrich_ driving!"

"Look, I know take off was a little rough," Ulrich called over his shoulder.

"A little!?" Jeremie exclaimed. "How long have you been flying?"

"I'd rather not answer that," Ulrich said, just loud enough to be heard.

"That makes me feel _so_ much better," Jeremie said, sarcasm dripping through his voice.

Yumi gave Jeremie a sad look before walking into the cockpit, resting her hand on the roof of the low doorway. "Ignore him, how you doing?"

"No one knows we're out here," Ulrich admitted, his voice low enough not to carry beyond her. Around his neck rested a pair of headphones with a mike attacked, voices drifting up through the ear pieces. "I've already gotten a call of being an unidentified aircraft, the German air force has threatened me, and I think we're about to get into France."

"All and all, I think you're doing a good job," Yumi offered.

"Thanks."

"Ulrich Stefan Stern! I know you're on that plane!"

Yumi eyed her friend, hearing his father's harsh words and asked, "Your middle name's Stefan?"

"I still hate that name," Ulrich grumbled, flicking a switch out of the plethora of switches in front of him.

"I know you can hear me," Bruno's voice yelled through the headpiece around Ulrich's neck. "Turn that plane around this instant! If you get one scratch on that plane, you'll be paying for it from your own pocket!"

"Sorry Dad," Ulrich said, pulling the cord for his headphones out of the jack along the dashboard. He let it drop to the floor beside him and said, "Yumi, can you help me?"

"I'll try, what do you need?"

Ulrich glanced at the co-pilot seat, reaching over to knock off the book he had learned from. "Sit down. I want an extra pair of eyes out on the sky." He paused for a moment, checking his instruments. "I can't look down."

"I was wondering about that," Yumi said, a ghost of a smile on her face. She took the seat next to Ulrich, picking up the learners manual, and asked, "How did someone with vertigo take up flying?"

"It was supposed to help with it," Ulrich admitted. He looked over at the map he had taped to the window just to his side, blocking out any view of the ground from his point of view, checking where he should be. "Well, here's France. What does it look like?"

Yumi looked out her side window only to let out a gasp. "This isn't right."

"What?"

"Fire's still raging, I guess this far out there's still something for it to burn," Yumi admitted.

"I thought that was smoke I saw rising up," Ulrich commented. He glanced at his map, running a finger along the path he planned to take.

The sound of a plane's engine sounded over the slight hum of their own plane, getting the two to look towards Yumi's side. Flying beside them was a France Air Force jet slowing down to be beside them.

"Uhm, we gotta problem!" Aelita's voice called from the cabin.

"We see!" Ulrich called out. He grabbed hold of the cord attached to his headset and quickly plugged it back in. He flicked a switch and adjusted the mouth piece before saying, "Buckle up everybody, I haven't tried these maneuvers here in the real world. Jeremie, there's air sickness bags in the armrest if you need it."

He flicked the switch off and waited a moment as he heard clicking from behind him and one beside him. Glancing over at the plane keeping pace with them, He looked back at Yumi and asked, "Ready?"

She gripped the shoulder straps of her seatbelt and nodded her head. "When you are."

Ulrich jerked the controls to the left, taking the plane into a sharp turn away from the military plane.

Yumi kept an eye on the plane beside them as it turned with them. "Can this thing go any faster?"

"Working on it," Ulrich said. He leveled the plane out and started raising the speed.

"He's keeping up with us," Yumi announced.

"Of course he is." A smile appeared on his face. "I've been to another world, he hasn't."

Ulrich pulled back on the controls, bringing them up sharply.

"Whoa!" Yumi let out, holding onto her chair.

"I'm not sitting in the right seat for this!" Odd exclaimed from behind them.

"Hold on!" Ulrich called out, knowing what he was doing.

"This is fun!" Aelita exclaimed, her voice louder then Odd and Jeremie's screaming.

Yumi pushed herself up to look out the side window and announced, "He's flying passed us!"

"Not for long, I learned that move from movies," Ulrich admitted. "I'm sure he knows it too. This is what he won't be expecting."

As he said that, the pull of inertia disappearing as they stalled pointing upwards in the air. Ulrich pushed on the controls, sending them downwards. "Ugh, I hate this even more then I thought I would!" Ulrich called out, seeing the burnt ground filling the windshield. "Yumi! Grab that stick!"

"You're not getting out of this that way!" Yumi ordered, grabbing the controls in front of her. "Stay with me Ulrich!"

Ulrich shook his head and turned his attention away from the view, his stomach believing it should be higher in elevation than he really was, and looked at his panels as an alarm sounded.

"Do you know what you're doing!?" Aelita called from the cabin.

"You are _not_ getting a good review out of me!" Odd exclaimed.

"Ulrich, ground coming up," Yumi reminded, panic in her voice.

"I see."

"Ulrich!?"

"Hold on!"

Ulrich closed his eyes and counted a second before pulling up on his controls, bringing the plane back upwards. He opened his eyes, seeing the burnt remains of a town below him. He closed his eyes, not liking the site before him for a moment, opening them back up only when he knew he wouldn't see the ground anymore.

"Ulrich?"

He looked over at the girl sitting next to him and asked, "Wha'?"

She gave him a smile. "You're crazy."

"How 'bout that other guy?"

Yumi turned to look out the window, taking a moment to look in all directions. "He's retreating."

"How's them?" Ulrich asked, throwing a thumb over his shoulder.

"You done with the fancy flying for a moment?" Yumi checked.

Ulrich let out a laugh, "Hopefully."

Yumi unbuckled and stood up. "I'll be right back." She turned and walked out of the cockpit and took in the carnage. Anything that hadn't been bolted to the floor was now strung over the floor. She looked at Jeremie and Aelita, both sitting to face the front of the plane as Jeremie breathed into a paper bag. "How's he holding up?"

"He's hyperventilating," Aelita admitted, rubbing her shoulder.

Yumi leaned over Odd's chair and looked down at him as he rubbed his neck where the shoulder straps had held him in. "How about you two?"

"I almost got decapitated!" Odd exclaimed.

"You're alive, and I think I see one of your sandwiches survived," Yumi said, smiling at the sight of a lonely sandwich sliding down the back wall of the plane from the mustard Odd had used.

"Yumi!"

Yumi turned around and looked back at the cockpit, wondering what was happening. She patted Odd's shoulder before turning around and making her way back to the pilot. "What's wrong?" Yumi asked, her stomach falling to the floor in worry.

"I can't seem to figure out where we are," Ulrich admitted, looking at his map. "What do you see down there?"

Yumi went back to the co-pilot's seat and looked out the window. "What!? No way!"

"What is it?" Ulrich asked. "Don't tell me we ended up in Spain."

"No, we're right above Kadic!" Yumi exclaimed.

"What?"

"Yeah, just go a little more to the right and we'll be over the factory."

"I guess that dog fight got me going faster than I thought," Ulrich realized, slowing them down.

"I think I can see the factory," Yumi said. "It looks like it's been in a bubble this whole time."

Ulrich made the turn Yumi had said to make and glanced downward to see what she was talking about. He let out a breath and started hitting switches, hitting the one by the microphone jack once again before saying, "Attention, this is your captain speaking. Please, everyone, be in your seats and bucked up as we are about to land on top of the factory." He reached for the switch and paused as a smile came over his face. "And thank you for flying Air Loony Bin."

"Air Loony Bin! Why not Air Loony Toons while you're at it!" Odd called out as Ulrich switched the mike off.

Ulrich threw a glance at Yumi, the smile still on his face, as he said, "I've always wanted to do that."

"Where do you plan to land? There's nothing long enough to be counted as a runway," Yumi asked, looking down at the factory as Ulrich circled them around and started descending.

"I don't know," Ulrich admitted. "But there's nowhere else that's flat enough, and we know the factory was built better than people give it credit for."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Yumi said as she got back in her seat and bucked back into it.

Ulrich didn't respond, keeping his eyes on the roof of the factory as it came up close. He flicked another switch just as the first wheel made contact with the roof. The other two wheels grabbed hold as Ulrich pulled back on the breaks, keeping an eye on the edge of the factory's roof and what was once the Sevres River loomed ever closer.

"Come on. Stop!" Ulrich ordered, putting all his muscles into the breaks. He closed his eyes, afraid that after coming this far he might miss the end of the building.

Slowly the plane came to a stop, letting him open his eyes.

"Are we alive?" Odd called out.

"I think so," Ulrich answered. He let out a laugh as he leaned back in his seat. "I did it."

"I knew you could," Yumi said, unbuckling herself from the seat.

Ulrich unbuckled himself and walked out of the cockpit with Yumi right behind him. "You have just survived the _first_ completed landing by yours truly!"

"That was your first!" Jeremie exclaimed, fighting with the buckle around him.

"Not my first," Ulrich admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Just the first I didn't crash into anything."

"Who's up for round two?" Aelita exclaimed, jumping to her feet. She walked over to Jeremie's seat and helped him with his buckle.

Jeremie let out a moan, glad to be free of his chair.

"We need to take you to an amusement park, you'd love roller coasters," Odd said, getting to his feet.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Yumi said, pulling open the door. She lowered the steps and looked down. "Ulrich, could you've cut it any closer?"

"The factory's not that long," Ulrich admitted, walking over to stand behind her only to see what she meant. The retractable stairs lead just off the building, showing the empty river below. Ulrich's stomach tumbled once again, getting him to take a step back, admitting, "Ok, so I was a little close. We're alive, aren't we?"

"If you call this living," Jeremie admitted as he walked over to the door with Aelita and Odd, his arm around his stomach.

Yumi took in the destruction around them as Jeremie led the way down the steps, carefully getting onto the factory roof. "I guess they used up the river to try and take out the blaze," Yumi realized, the neighborhood closest to the factory all burnt down.

"It looks like pictures out of old wars," Aelita admitted, standing next to the girl as Odd steeped out of the plane.

"Come on, let's get all of this fixed," Ulrich said, leading the girls onto the roof. The three made it over to Odd and Jeremie, who were standing behind the plane, looking at the carnage left in Xana's wake.

"So how do we get down?" Yumi asked, turning to face her friends.

"Follow me, I know a way," Jeremie said, walking towards the side of the factory that had become the start of a runway. The five walked over to the edge, following Jeremie over the edge and onto a platform that poked out underneath.

AN: There is no way that Air Force plane would've let them go unless something worst was happening elsewhere. I wonder what else was going on that day.


	16. Chapter 15 Fight to the Finish

Chapter 15

Fight to the Finish

"How do you find all these passages through the factory?" Ulrich asked as the five made their way down the ladder that led into the lab.

"I wanna know why an old car factory needed to have all these passages," Yumi pointed out.

"Get down to the scanner room," Jeremie said as he jumped the last rung off the ladder. He walked over to the chair and added, "I'll send the girls first."

"Got it Jeremie," Ulrich said as Aelita slid open the hatch to continue going down the ladder.

Jeremie swung the chair around with its electronic controls and faced the computer screens as the Holospear awoke, showing all of Lyoko. He grabbed the mike sitting on the keyboard and attached it to his ear, giving his friends time to make it down to the room right below him.

Aelita made it down the ladder first, turning around to look at the scanner room only to freeze in her tracks.

"Humph!" Ulrich retracted his leg, surprised to find the girl stopped at the bottom of the ladder.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Odd asked, still hanging onto the ladder with Yumi above him.

"Shush," Aelita ordered, putting a finger over her mouth. "I heard something." She moved out of the way, letting her friend get down, as she slowly moved to look around the scanners. A low rasping sound filled the air.

"It's coming from over here," Yumi said, her voice hushed as she gripped her hands into fists at the ready. Yumi and Ulrich made their way over to the rasping sound, Odd at the ready behind them with Aelita protectively behind him. They rounded the third scanner as they could make out small bones and scraps of fur.

"What on…" Ulrich asked, not seeing what he was expecting.

They continued making their way around the scanner only for Odd to exclaim, "Kiwi!" He pushed through his friends, dropping the fake imitation Kiwi on the floor. He dropped to his knees beside the small rat terrier as the dog looked upwards at Odd, one eye swollen shut. Kiwi opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang out, as he struggled to his paws. He held his right front paw so that it hung above the ground and gave a feeble bark at the group.

"How did he…?" Yumi started to ask, her voice leaving her as they watched the dog limp over to Odd and stretch his head upwards.

Odd leaned down, wanting to take the dog in his arms but not sure what else could be causing the small dog any pain. Kiwi gave him a lick on the cheek, getting a week smile out of Odd.

"Hey, what's going on down there?" Jeremie asked, his voice being projected through speakers in the ceiling.

"You have to come down here, Jeremie," Aelita said, kneeling down next to her friend to gently pet Kiwi's head. Kiwi leaned into her hand, getting her to smile.

"I can't believe what that dog's gone through," Ulrich said, shaking his head as he looked down at the reunion.

"And he knew he'd be safe if he could make it here," Yumi realized.

"What's going on?" Jeremie asked, dropping down from the ladder. He walked over to the group, surprised to see them all hunched over behind the scanner.

"We found Kiwi," Odd said, tears in his voice as he carefully put a hand under Kiwi's ribs. He gently lifted the dog up and stood up so he could turn around and show Jeremie.

"You're kidding!" Jeremie exclaimed, seeing the dog in Odd's arms.

"I told you Kiwi was smarter then you gave him credit for," Odd said, holding Kiwi close to his chest.

Jeremie took in the site of the small dog, pity showing on his face. "Let me take him," Jeremie said. "The sooner we get that tower deactivated, the sooner he won't be in pain."

Odd looked down at the dog in his arms, worried for his dog but nodded his head all the same. He gave his dog a hug, careful for the awkwardly bent paw, and getting a lick out of it.

Jeremie did his best to put his hands where Odd had been holding the dog, pulling him close to his chest. Kiwi looked up at Jeremie with his good eye, giving the teen a lick on the chin. He looked up at the group, a tear hanging just behind his glasses, as he said, "As soon as I get up there, I'll send the girls."

"We'll be ready," Yumi said, nodding her head.

Jeremie turned around and headed to the door, knowing he wouldn't be able to make it up the ladder with Kiwi like this.

-.-.-.-

"I can't believe this is try two for this tower," Yumi mumbled, keeping an eye around them as she and Aelita waited.

Aelita kept an eye to the sky, seeing the mountain plateaus out in the distance. "He just caught us off guard," Aelita admitted. Two figures appeared in the sky, getting her to announce, "There they are."

Ulrich and Odd formed in the air before dropping down to their feet, catching themselves as they landed. Ulrich straightened to his feet as Odd balanced on the balls of his feet, paws to the ground.

"The tower's west of your position," Jeremie said, his voice resonating from somewhere beyond the sky above them as three vehicles materialized in front of them.

"We see it, Jeremie," Aelita said, following Yumi onto the Overwing. As soon as the two were secure, Yumi turned the grips, getting the Overwing to go forwards. They flew down the path with Ulrich and Odd flanking the girls.

"Look out, Xana's sent you some company," Jeremie said, three red triangles appearing on his screen coming to the four that were his friends. He looked upwards and called up the enemies' cards. "Three frôlions flying towards you."

"Great, I hate bugs," Yumi said, pulling out her fan as the sound of beating wings was getting louder.

"We'll take care of them," Ulrich said, pulling up so that he drove next to the girls. "Keep Aelita safe."

"Didn't we try this the first time?" Odd asked, looking passed the girls at Ulrich.

"Just go!" Yumi ordered, the three frôlions appearing around a small mountain in the path.

Odd looked up just in time to see a laser heading straight for them. "Shield!" Odd exclaimed, raising his arm to protect himself from the blast.

"They're starting to surround us," Ulrich said, pulling free his sword from its sheath.

Yumi let out a battle cry, flinging her tessens away from her. The fan flew through the air and sliced straight through a frôlion, killing it as the fan came back to her.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd exclaimed, shooting at the frôlion that had taken a shot at him.

"Yumi, there's a path," Aelita said, pointing just around the path.

"Got it," Yumi nodded her head. "Guys!"

"We'll cover you!" Ulrich said, deflecting away a laser back in the flight path of the frôlion.

Yumi turned the Overwing and flew over the edge of the path, keeping a tessen at the ready in one hand in case the frôlions noticed them.

"Xana, don't you get it?" Odd asked, shooting off another laser arrow, killing the frôlion that he had been fighting. "You will never win."

"Don't say that too loudly," Ulrich said, killing his frôlion only to have dread on his face as he looked towards the girls and the red tower. "Look!"

"Aelita!" Jeremie's voice cried out as he watched, helplessly.

Odd followed his gaze, watching Ulrich turn his Overbike and drive after the girls. The girls were fighting the Scyphozoa over the Digital Sea. He quickly turned his Overboard and followed behind Ulrich, aiming his fist at the flying jellyfish. "Laser Arrow!" Odd ordered, shooting the last four arrows he had at the Scyphozoa as its tentacles reached out to Aelita.

Yumi drove the Overwing away from the Scyphozoa, surprised at how fast the creature could fly as it reached out at the girl holding onto her. She looked over her shoulder and flung out a tessen, keeping hold of the steering column with the other hand.

"Yumi!" Aelita cried out, holding tight to her friend as a tentacle reached out and brushed against her back.

"Aelita!" Ulrich called out as he drove his Overbike through the air and swung his sword at the tentacles. Cutting off two on his first swing, he rounded the flying jellyfish and swung again to take off three more.

"Aelita, run!" Yumi ordered, swinging the Overwing over ground again as they neared the tower.

Aelita jumped off the vehicle, her feet skidding on the purple ground as she fought for traction. She almost fell forward, catching herself as she started running towards the tower. Quickly she made it to the roots and slowed down, going through the walls and into the digital blue of the tower's inside.

Odd landed on the ground beside the tower, watching his friends driving back to land as the Scyphozoa retreated.

"This doesn't feel right," Yumi said, dropping to the ground as she stopped her Overwing.

Ulrich slowed to a stop and dropped a foot to the ground. "Well, at least you didn't call that easy," Ulrich said, throwing his thumb back the way they had just come.

"No, but why didn't Xana send more monsters?" Yumi asked.

"I'm not going to complain," Odd admitted. "This was his worst attack yet, and he almost won."

Aelita exited the tower as its color changed from red to white and stopped next to her friends. She looked up at the sky and asked, "Jeremie?"

"Return to the past now!" Jeremie said, keystrokes heard right before a familiar white light blinded them.


	17. Chapter 16 One Day Earlier?

Chapter 16

One Day Earlier?

Yumi looked down and noticed the Game Boy in her hand. She looked down at Odd, sitting on his bed with Kiwi resting his chin on the boy's leg, before turning to look at the rest of her friends in the bed room. "Why did we go this far back?" Yumi asked, seeing Jeremie and Aelita as confused as she was. "The attack wasn't until… tomorrow."

Jeremie sat down on Ulrich's bed and pulled out his laptop, "I don't know," Jeremie admitted.

"Unless this was when the attack really started," Aelita offered. She looked down at Jeremie and asked, "Are all your programs back and working?"

"Yeah, everything's back to how it should be," Jeremie nodded his head. He typed away at the screen and squinted at the screen for a moment before smiling. "Everything and everyone, it seems."

Odd stood up, holding Kiwi in his arms, and said, "Come on, let's go outside. It'll be nice to see the park again."

Ulrich knelt down next to Odd's wardrobe and pulled open the bottom drawer, pulling out a small ball. He twisted around to look back at the group, squeaking the ball. "Hey Kiwi, you wanna play?" Ulrich asked, a smile on his face.

Kiwi let out a bark, jumping out of Odd's hands and going over to Ulrich. He balanced on his hind paws, licking Ulrich's cheek before reaching to paw at the ball in Ulrich's hands.

The End

AN: Eight years later and this story finally has a proper ending and so much added to it. To think this story only have ten chapters originally and took about twenty pages with how I have it formatted in Word. I regret that I started editing the original file, so I no longer have that anymore but oh well. The next story won't have that problem, I know that. And if you're lucky (or unlucky) it might already have been posted somewhere else as its old self. This is fun, going through my old Code Lyoko stories and fixing them up. They need it, some, like this one, having great potential.

Until the next story, my dear readers.

Kiwi Lee Scipio


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